The present invention relates generally to mobile communication systems, and, more particularly to multicarrier communication systems.
Conventional CDMA communication systems transmit data to users on a single carrier. To meet the demand for wireless high-speed data services, multicarrier CDMA systems will be required. Multicarrier CDMA systems, as the name implies, use multiple carriers to transmit data between a network station and a mobile station. Multicarrier CDMA offers advantages over conventional single carrier CDMA systems such as higher data rates, reduced latency, and improved support for Quality of Service (QoS). Multicarrier CDMA systems will also provide higher spectral efficiency by exploiting frequency selective fading across multiple carriers and through adaptive load balancing.
Existing proposals for multicarrier CDMA systems assume that all carriers employed use the same air interface. However, there may be circumstances where a communication system employs different air interfaces for different carriers. Therefore, there is a need for a multicarrier CDMA system that can accommodate two or more different air interfaces.